Playoff Matchday 1: DCU at Chicago [updated]

***LINEUP ALERT: No Emilio, no Moreno. Kpene up top, Gomez advanced a bit, Carroll and Simms clog the middle. Full lineups at the bottom of this thread.....

Greetings from gusty Toyota Park, where the temperature is going to drop significantly once the sun dips below the west-side stands. For those watching at home tonight, the team going left to right on your TV screen in each half should have an advantageous wind at their back. The playing surface is in immaculate condition and should allow for some quality ball work.

***FYI, the match will not kick off until around 9 p.m. Eastern, not 8:30. Blame ESPN2, which has a big pregame show planned.

My first impression upon my first-ever visit to this stadium: thumbs up. It's not IN Chicago, mind you, and there is not a lot around it, but the sightlines are superb and the facility itself is first class. Well done, AEG.

I do apologize for the rumor tease. If I had known it would cause such panic -- yes, you're right, I should've known better -- I would have waited a little longer. Anyway, here goes:

Two independent sources tell me that both Christian Gomez and Jaime Moreno are being pursued by a club in Qatar and that they very well could leave MLS after this season. We've known for quite some time that Gomez could depart this winter -- his contract is up and no new talks will take place until the season ends -- but the Moreno angle is a bit surprising.

Why Qatar? Ask Romario, Batistuta, Desailly and Caniggia. The answer: $$$$$. Many veteran players have headed to the tiny Middle East nation the last 10 years. Moreno and Gomez are entering the late stage of their playing careers and one final fat contract would go a long way in their post-futbol lives.

I will caution you -- and this is the reason I have tried to handle the subject carefully -- I've not heard the RUMOR from anyone other than these two sources. Some of my other very reliable contacts have not heard a thing. The truth might be that the players have been approached by the Qatari club(s) but are not interested. It could be that the Gomez link has some veracity and the Moreno one does not. It could be that there is no truth to it whatsoever. I'm just sharing what I know at the moment. When I learn more -- maybe later tonight? -- you will be the first to know.

Toyota Park is a nice facility. Shame it's surrounded by freeways and concrete pastures. it really is pretty desolate.

Still, as you say, the field is very nice, and the facilities are top-notch. My only beef is with the quality of the lighting. You see pools of light and harsh shadows from players all over the field. It's pretty bad.

From the players perspective, if they can get a significant contract and they want to move their families to the middle east and their minds were made up, I'd wouldn't want to prevent Jaime (who's been a key member for DCU since 96 - excluding that brief stint in the land of the unwashed) from pursuing a terrific opportunity.

Christian is out of contract and so that even more reason, if he wants to go. Good luck.

Now, the challenge is finding good replacements for the Salary cap available.

Qatar... hmmm... aren't Zidane, Pele, Maradona, Best et al playing there? Seems like every veteran looking for a bigger contract from their club in the twilight of their careers has been linked to playing in the Middle East. Certainly hope that's all this is...

Goff, thanks for the heads-up on the starting time... need to reset the ending time on the DVR.

They don't have to take their families... Jaime's could probably stay here (I think..), and Christian's could go back to Argentina. A year or two in Qatar would make a lot more than Christian would make in MLS. or in Argentina. It has to be tempting.

Qatar, eh? More competition for MLS in signing aging stars for a victory lap. First it was the J League, now the Persian Gulf League, or whatever it's called. How are we going to get the next Angel or Beckham or Blanco here if Qatar is going to dangle petrobucks in their faces?

If this rumor is confirmed, we can also expect that La Brujita Veton will definitely play for DCU next year.
W/out Gomez, that would make even more sense.

As for Javier, it would be sad to see him leave, but let's be honest, he has lost a step if not two and if he can cash out one more year in Quatar, more power to him!
I would not be surprised to see him back with DCU in the future in a different capacity.

Exactly. We need not worry about too many big stars going over there--they've already made their bundle. Beckham is somewhat believable in his statements about growing soccer in the US for that reason. He just doesn't need it.

What we need to worry about is the more mid level stars. Jaime and Gomez aren't on Qatar's short list because of their name draw--it;s because they were (and remain) very good.

If the lineups are true, I'm a bit nervous. A Boswell/McTavish pairing is not as solid as a Vanney/McTavish or Vanney/Boswell pairing. Let's see how they keep their shape and keep track of Barrett and Rolfe.

"When contrasted with other Arab states such as Saudi Arabia, for instance, Qatar has comparatively liberal laws, but is still not as liberal as some of its neighbors like [the United Arab Emirates] or Bahrain. Women can drive in Qatar, whereas they may not legally drive in Saudi Arabia.

"Qatar became the first country in the Persian Gulf where women gained the right to vote. Also, women can dress mostly as they please in public....The laws of Qatar tolerate alcohol to a certain extent. However, public bars and nightclubs in Qatar operate only in expensive hotels and clubs, much like in the emirates and Bahrain, though the number of establishments has yet to equal that of UAE."

MLSnet's lineup is definitely wrong, considering several players listed on the bench didn't even travel (Arguez and North). It also has Chicago dropping Robinson and Wanchope entirely (granted, I think Chicago would do well for themselves to drop Wanchope, who has appeared to be as disinterested as any MLS player in recent memory).

From what SG and MLSnet normally do, it will be an hour before kickoff before the actual lineups are posted.

Thomas Jefferson was a redhead, too. In any event, the article says that only 1 percent of Neanderthals were redheads, much lower than most modern European populations. If someone is trying to link Neanderthalness with redheadedness, this article does just the opposite.

depending on how things go (clearly this is the away leg and we dont have 2 key players so we might be a bit defensive minded) but effectivley i see this line up as a 4-3-3 with fred and gomez doing little tracking back and simms, carroll and olsen handling the middle.

Saying Qatar is relatively more liberal than Saudi Arabia isn't saying much. Even a sizable amount of Arabs don't like living in Saudi Arabia, especially the women. I've been to some "liberal" arab-middle eastern countries where women aren't even required to cover their heads and I would just say Moreno and Gomez wouldn't be going there because its fun for families and women.

Rob Stone should go back to doing the bowling commentary that he did this week.

How is it possible to still not know how to pronounce blanco's name, he should be fired, soccer announcers for espn are not professional, how can espn boost its ratings by telling every single mexican that they don't care

I am not a eurosnob but MLS game would be about 10X better if Englishmen did the games. I think American soccer fans would take them a lot more seriously. I mean Julie Foudy and Rob Stone? Christ.Could they be any whitter? Even I have a hard time taking it seriously.

I am not a eurosnob but MLS game would be about 10X better if Englishmen did the games. I think American soccer fans would take them a lot more seriously. I mean Julie Foudy and Rob Stone? Christ.Could they be any whitter? Even I have a hard time taking it seriously.

Mr Goff... Long time reader, first post. For those of us north of the border, we need a push for the MLSLive package, we can't legally get ESPN or the Deuce, we need to have these games on the MLS package. I understand why they wouldn't for the US but they could somehow allow it for Canadian residents if they want to grow the exposure of the league.

Look, I'm a soccer fan, right. I'm watching ESPN tonight and not the World Series because I have a dog in the fight. But Socctober? Really? That's the BEST they could do? Cut with all the baseball references. Most baseball fans aren't watching tonight, and I can't imagine hardcore soccer fans are thrilled with it either.

Hey ESPN. Keep zooming in on a random player's face during the run of play. Who needs to see if that last through ball found the forward's feet? That corner kick, less important than that fan's sign. You suck.

To all those posters upset about the ref ending the first half on a corner kick - the laws of the game say the clock can expire on a corner kick. No mistake by the ref there."

True to "the letter of the law" but still a crap judgement call. For every call that we think is straight forward, there seems to be pages of conditions in the rule book. I no longer assume anything about calls except that its ALWAYS a judgement call. Doesn't mean its a good call.

Not only is DC being wasteful with service, but they're simply losing possession far too easily. Moreno there doesn't even attempt a move and loses the ball. They're not forcing the Fire to come up with great tackles, just simple stuff.

Two handballs in the box... And the second one caught the eye of the line judge and turned the stomach of the ref (who was quite enamored with Blanco by the way).

To add to it... it was unusually difficult listening to Eric Wynalda saying.... well saying... nothing... after each handball. Gotta wonder whether the fine folks at ESPN drank the league Kool-Aid and deliberately curbed their criticism of officiating...

With the excpetion of Glenn's rhetorical questions about whether the ref's adjust their perspecitvie for the play-offs, Wynalda's silence during replays of officiating botches was defeaning...

somebody needs to grab the ESPN director and smack him about the head and shoulders. That was bar none the most frustrating match I have ever tried to watch. Just because you have 35 cameras doesn't mean you have to use them all at least once a minute. Show us the bloody game!

Gomez clearly does not belong at forward. He stands offside the whole time. I think it wasn't such a bad idea to have Jaime run the show from the attacking mid slot but putting Gomez up front was a complete waste.

All in all not the worst result. But I think scoring one playoff goal will hopefully shut up the idiot announcers from blathering on and on about it.

"In my view, the defender placed his arms in front of him to protect himself before the ball was struck into him, and his arm. Sorry, no call there."

There's always a call there if the ref makes that judgement. When women protect their boobies from the ball in my coed league at the Fairfaxsportsplex, the refs don't call that, but 50% of the time they call it on a guy if he puts his arms up to protect his raisins.

Its always a judgement call and sometimes the ref calls that a PK. I think he chose not to call the second handball in the box because of how late it was in the game. Moreno did not foul the guy in the box, but in order to avoid the PK on the handball, he had to call a foul on Moreno and then a card to boot. The card was BS.

1) Terrible plays by both Vanney and McTavish to allow the first goal. Vanney looked like he wanted to head the ball back to Perkins, without having the "veteran presence" to realize Rolfe was making a run.

2) I love Soehn, but tactics were poor tonight. Simms and Carrol don't work well together as a central midfield tandem. Zero creativity there. Switching to a brand new formation for the playoffs is also puzzling. Stick with what got you there. Last, I like McTavish but I question the decision to start a postseason rookie over Boswell.

History, schmistory - it's half-time and we're down by one goal, plus we have home field advantage for the second half. After the early goal, I was glad to get out of there losing by 1. Time to wake up and get it done next week.

Burch wasn't the only one to "stop on a play." Fred did the same thing at least twice.

And WTF was with Gomez being offside for practically half the game?!?!? I started this season being a total futbol newbie and despising the Offside Rule, and now at the end of the season I'm freaking out every time the oppsition lays an offside trap that my 95-year-old, half-blind grandmother coulda noticed better than Gomito tonight.

Burch wasn't the only one to "stop on a play." Fred did the same thing at least twice.

Posted by: Juan-John | October 26, 2007 12:54 AM

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Yeah - but Burch stopped on a play that resulted in a goal...almost exclusively because he stopped covering his man. Had Burch stayed goal side of Rolfe (or at least continued to mark him), that open shot would not have been available.

I love Burch and think he's fantastic, but that goal was largely his fault. Well, I guess you could also blame the wind...man, it was like playing downhill for the team going left to right (unless ESPN is using that awful aerial cam...that broadcast was horrible on every count!).

I don't have much good to say about Soehn. Should I drink the kool-aid and sing Cumbaya?

The man is an idiot when it comes to coaching. Myself and a friend who coaches HS (as did I for a while before moving) were at the DCU-Dallas match. Right after the third DC goal, I asked him, "What's your move, coach?" Of course we both said pull Moreno and stick in a DM. Moreno had just gotten back from international play and you could tell he was gassed. Soehn pulled him only after he was injured.

The last Saturday deal was much the same. A meaningless game as far as winning might have been concerned, but a good time to A) rest up your go-to guys, who have been getting a little knicked, and B) give your bench players up front some minutes. You sure as hell don't pass up the opportunity to get your A-team offense a little breather -- those whom you'll be relying upon in the playoffs. We saw what happened again.

The job of the coach is not to screw things up just when the pressure is the highest. It's to manage the minutes and structure the squad so that there is maximum efficiency in developing the whole group, and to adjust strategy and positioning to the nature of the individual players.

We've seen Fred stuck in left mid, where he has had minimal effect for a maximal price tag. We've seen key players' minutes not adequately managed in the run up to the playoffs and during the season. we've seen developmental players remain marginal and show very little improvement, so that by the time when their roles become critical, they are no better than they were at the beginning of the year. And at the time when the pressure is on, for a road playoff match in Chicago, we've seen this: a guy who has over 600 minutes on the field as a striker this year and has not scored a goal start up top.

So how has Soehn earned any recognition as anything other than a marginal coach? He's not as big a jerk as Novak was? What has Soehn influenced positively?

If I were a Red Bulls fan, I'd be voting for Soehn to be coach of the year, no doubt.